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7 Nov 2015: Just when you thought you had it right … You take some Flak!

Yep. Some days, despite my years of working at this writing thing, some days I feel like I’m back in high school English class. If I were magically transported back to Mrs. Emmenhiser’s class, I’d certainly give her a piece of my mind!

I recently bought a book that has lots of little things we commonly write wrong in it. It’s a wonderful book … and also a torture device straight from the devil himself. I thought I’d share some of the items I’ve already found useful:

Blonde with the e at the end refers to a woman with Blonde hair.

Blond with no e refers to a man with blond hair.

Confidante with the e at the end refers to a female confidante.

Confidant with no e refers to a male confidant.

Back yard as one word means the yard at the back of the house. “Let’s go out into the backyard.”

Backyard as two words refers to something in the backyard, like “a backyard swimming pool.”

A job perq, or a benefit of the job, is spelled perq, not perk.

North, south, east and west as directions are generally not capitalized. If they refer to a specific place like North America, then they are capitalized.

Faint means dim, dizzy or slight.

Feint means a deceptive action, like “the boxed feinted with a left fist.”

Further is used in abstract situations like “she couldn’t go any further.”

Father is used for measurable distances, like “the house is farther away than then barn.”

Flak is criticism or ground based antiaircraft fire. “I took a lot of flak for my suggestions.”